Clipper Round The World Yacht Race - Still far from decided

In the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race, with less than a hundred miles now separating the entire fleet, Jamaica Get All Right’s gamble to head further east is so far paying off as the team takes the lead in Race 11 - the PSP Logistics Panama 100 Cup.

As Jamaica Get All Right takes the lead in Race 11 after heading further inshore, making it the most easterly boat in the fleet, Switzerland and Great Britain are hot on the heels of their prey, desperate to make gains at the top of the leaderboard. Pete Stirling, skipper of Jamaica Get All Right, racing to its home port, knows the race is still far from decided.

'Going east seems to have paid off for the moment as YellowBrick had us in first place at the last position update we received at 00:00 UTC. This is great news but there is still a long way to go in this race and as conditions get lighter it will require a lot of focus from the crew and good tactics to maintain a position at the front end of the fleet,' he said.

'As Sir Robin Knox-Johnston says, ‘Any fool can make a boat go fast in strong wind but keeping it going in light winds requires real skill'. The good news has given the crew new energy and drive to carry on pushing as hard as we possibly can to try and get a good result in this race.'

Meanwhile, as the light and variable winds continue to hamper the fleet’s progress, Derry~Londonderry~Doire and Team Garmin have both selected to activate Stealth Mode. Following on from Switzerland’s successful Stealth Mode request last week which saw the team climb five places on the leaderboard, Derry~Londonderry~Doire’s position will be hidden from the rest of the fleet and the Race Viewer until 0600 UTC tomorrow. Team Garmin’s position will be hidden until 1200 UTC tomorrow.

While the close match racing continues Matt Mitchell, skipper of Mission Performance, commented today in his skipper report that, 'This has definitely got to be one of the closest races so far as there is a very small spread considering we have been racing for well over 1000 miles.' As tactics start to play out, skipper of Invest Africa Rich Gould hopes that the team’s most southerly position will pay off in the long run. Skipper Rich Gould explains:

'Although the Race Viewer is currently showing us sitting in eleventh place at the moment, we are the most southerly boat in the fleet and also the most westerly. It's the east west distance that has been responsible for our slide down the leaderboard. Looking at the forecast we decided to split a little from the fleet to try and gain a better wind angle a little further down the race track. Only time will tell if it was a good move or not.'